Life in Tuscany was not so sunny the past couple days, as the weather turned unseasonably cool and windy. It was actually a welcome relief from the merciless heat we had in Rome last week and it made hiking around with kids and baggage more pleasant. Two days ago our family spent some time in the Duomo in downtown Florence, and yesterday we took a day trip to the lovely town of Pisa. I was astounded at how beautiful the town was, from its almost Venetian river scene to its famous Campo dei Miracoli featuring the one-of-a-kind “Pisan Romanesque” style. I particularly enjoyed the baptistery, built in 3 successive periods as you can see when looking at it from the bottom up. On the inside, a note you sing will echo for 10 seconds, and every 30 minutes a guard does a demonstration wherein he sound 3 consecutive notes and makes a chord. Very unique auditory experience.
The highlight in Florence for our visit that day was a painting of Dante inside the Duomo which has him standing alongside his beloved town of Florence and the 3 realms he portrayed in the Divine Comedy. Next time I post I’m hoping to do some theology for a change, highlighting some key points from our BC class’s discussion of Dante this past week.
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- Ramages in front of the Leaning Tower
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- Joseph peeking out the door to the Tuscan hillside right outside our apartment
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- Jen in front of the Dante painting in Florence’s duomo
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- Clear view of Florence’s duomo (right) from our villa
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- The most beautiful lawn in Italy, where we ate lunch outside the tower surrounded by the city’s imposing walls
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- Nice close-up showing just show much the tower tilts
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- Great view of the baptistery, built over 3 periods, from the simpler Romanesque (bottom) to ornate Gothic (middle) to the Renaissance dome.
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- Pisa duomo featuring its characteristic “Pisan Romanesque” facade–the whole thing is titled a bit (as is my camera angle). In fact, the tower, the baptistery, and the duomo are all unlevel.
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- Baptistery
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- Awesome baptistery, the largest in Italy. Every 30 min a guard does a demo of how musical notes echo for 10 seconds inside. He is able to make a chord of 3 notes off of his own echo–very unique.
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- Imposing, ornate ambo in the duomo
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- The Leaning Tower lived up to the hype, in my opinion
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- Julia deserves to be in a Coke promo for this shot
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- Beautiful Venetian-esque bridge crossing the Arno
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- Nice long shot of the nave of the duomo
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- I love the dark/light interplay of the marble inside this church. The Pisans imitated the style they saw in mosques in the Holy Land while on the Crusades
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- Apse of Pisa’s duomo, with Byzantine-style Christ Pantocrator mosaic above the altar
